Fat Girls Hiking is a diverse body positive hiking community based in Portland, OR.

Two founders Summer and Lesley created the group as an Instagram page in 2015, partly as a way to document their adventures, party as a reaction to being the only overweight people on the trails.

“We believe that folks of all ages, sizes, shapes, races, religions, classes, abilities, genders and sexual orientations should be represented & celebrated in outdoor media.”

“We want to take the shame & stigma out of the word FAT & empower it.  Our motto, Trails Not Scales is to focus on Self Love in the outdoors instead of weight loss” the group says on their site. “Trails Not Scales reminds us that the more we hike, the more love we have for ourselves & our bodies just as they are.”

The group has started organising trips, completing it’s first one a few weeks ago in Mount Hood National Forest.

The founders told Outside Online of a participant from Oregon who cried at the table one night, telling them, “It’s so great to be around people who don’t talk about weight loss or diets. I just don’t have this where I’m from.”

It’s this community of freedom and support that the group creates, while working towards are more inclusive outdoors industry.

“We want all people to feel comfortable outdoors & to be able to claim their space on the trail” they explain.

“We believe that folks of all ages, sizes, shapes, races, religions, classes, abilities, genders and sexual orientations should be represented & celebrated in outdoor media.”

Our community is for those folks who have feel like they don’t fit the typical hiker mold. We encourage & support folks who want to get out & hike, to do so!”